Thursday, April 25, 2013
Socialist airports
We have learned that in socialist countries, airport baggage claim workers do not like to be rushed. We are 55 minutes into waiting. About 10 bags from the whole plane have come out. Are they trying on all of our clothing?
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Sunset
We mentioned the sunset lea showed us. Forgot the pics. Here is what you wake up to for 1500 baht/night if you stay at the Hansa lodge (note: Siri tried to change Hansa to "Hamas". Very different. Very).
Val wins the day
Contrary to what we were told, you cannot buy a visa for Vietnam at entry. You have to have it beforehand. Because I have the best girlfriend (in the world), we can now go to Vietnam. -Jacob
(Val and our visas, which are strangely also the visas for 9 other people)
(Val and our visas, which are strangely also the visas for 9 other people)
Monday, April 22, 2013
4.22.13
To finish our statement from last night, if it seems to good to be true, we now know it definitely is. The beautiful utopia hotel was a disaster. We had hung our clothes out to dry and were getting ready for bed. Val pulled the sheets after taking a Benadryl (we counted her 170 bites this morning. 170!). She found 4 little ants crawling alive. I lifted the sheets to do a thorough search and found nests of eggs and tiny crawling things. (I think they were fleas). We're posting a few pics so you can all get an idea. We know these pics are what you're missing at home.
Anyhow, at that point, with Val about to pass out from Benadryl, we packed our backpacks and decided to leave. As Val headed down to grab the toiletries, she shrieked. There was a giant (about 9 inches in diameter) thick black spider crawling on the wall. We dropped everything and jumped on the motorbike at 2am.
We needed gas but still couldn't find a station until 2 nice girls from the 7-eleven drove us to an automatic pump station where you can fill up 24/7. They saved us!
The next issue is that hotels here don't have night shift people. So even though every place had a "room for rent" sign, we couldn't get someone to talk to to rent one to us. Two hours later, on the opposite side of the island, we found a nice, cheap, and clean (Jacob inspected the bed) place to stay.
We woke up the next morning, drove back across the island and got our money back and they paid for our bags to be sent to next hotel. We are returning to Palita Lodge tonight.
Everybody warned us that the trip would have adversity and we would have to see how we would react to it. So we want everyone to know that we survived and came out stronger and we're happier for it.
We also had a day we forgot to write about. It included amazing, cheap outdoor markets, a beautiful sunset at a resort lea showed us, and fresh local fish eaten on a table on a boat at a place called "fisherman's restaurant".
To finish our statement from last night, if it seems to good to be true, we now know it definitely is. The beautiful utopia hotel was a disaster. We had hung our clothes out to dry and were getting ready for bed. Val pulled the sheets after taking a Benadryl (we counted her 170 bites this morning. 170!). She found 4 little ants crawling alive. I lifted the sheets to do a thorough search and found nests of eggs and tiny crawling things. (I think they were fleas). We're posting a few pics so you can all get an idea. We know these pics are what you're missing at home.
Anyhow, at that point, with Val about to pass out from Benadryl, we packed our backpacks and decided to leave. As Val headed down to grab the toiletries, she shrieked. There was a giant (about 9 inches in diameter) thick black spider crawling on the wall. We dropped everything and jumped on the motorbike at 2am.
We needed gas but still couldn't find a station until 2 nice girls from the 7-eleven drove us to an automatic pump station where you can fill up 24/7. They saved us!
The next issue is that hotels here don't have night shift people. So even though every place had a "room for rent" sign, we couldn't get someone to talk to to rent one to us. Two hours later, on the opposite side of the island, we found a nice, cheap, and clean (Jacob inspected the bed) place to stay.
We woke up the next morning, drove back across the island and got our money back and they paid for our bags to be sent to next hotel. We are returning to Palita Lodge tonight.
Everybody warned us that the trip would have adversity and we would have to see how we would react to it. So we want everyone to know that we survived and came out stronger and we're happier for it.
We also had a day we forgot to write about. It included amazing, cheap outdoor markets, a beautiful sunset at a resort lea showed us, and fresh local fish eaten on a table on a boat at a place called "fisherman's restaurant".
Safari
We also stopped at the safari. They had a 10 month old monkey. But he doesn't like girls so there's only pictures of Jacob.
Ko phangan and the scooter
The post before was from April 20th
We wrote this post yesterday, April 21st. Just getting them online now.
For 150 baht a day ($6), we are the official owners (renters) of a scooter. Scared of it for day's, we were convinced of its necessity. now we are free to roam about the island, explore its various points, and maybe even move from haad rin.
The bike guy gave us 2 helmets and a tutorial. Now we just need to remember that they ride on the left side of the street here (already forgot that once).
Going out to explore. But after the first 5 minutes of riding, I don't think I ever want to leave.
(note: the above was written this morning. Out of deference to both sets of our worrying Jewish parents, we decided to hold off on posting until scooter day was done).
(cont)
There are no mobile stations in ko phangan (and we're all thankful for that, no offense meant, Lauren), but tonight, this fact almost did us in.
We spent the full day touring around the island. It's huge. It's not the size of a beach town, it's the size of a beach county. We went up the main highway road to try to get to bottle beach, with planned stops a la Lea's great tour guide recommendations. The main road is well paved so we thought it would be the best place to start our trek, and keep getting used to riding. The ride was amazing. Fresh, sea quality air, palm trees and the most amazing views you could ever imagine all around you. I was driving so Val got to soak it all in. We made stops for homemade ice cream made with fresh local ingredients, and at a Chinese church / lookout point (see pic). As you can see, there is sand and bugs flying everywhere when you ride, so we also made a pit stop to buy some authentic blue ray bans for 200 baht. ($7).
We finally made it to bottle beach, but after a few rain showers delayed us (not to worry, that's when we were ice-creaming it up), it was too late to kayak. So we kept going to our final stop: utopia resort. When we got here, we knew we weren't leaving.
Utopia is at the north west end of the island, about 25 km from our original hotel. It looks out over a private inlet and clicks to the east, and long views of the bay to the north and west. High up above a cliff, it's honestly breath taking. We sat for coffee and chatted with three Israelis fresh out of the army, and being us, started asking about the room rates. The guy said he wasn't the manager but could show us the rooms. The first one was incredible. Hard wood floors, Japanese decor, air con and fan and a private balcony overlooking the bay. that's the first floor. the basement has an outdoor shower, outdoor hot tub, and another balcony. We were sure it would be incredibly pricey for here. But maybe a normal price for us. We wanted to know. We walked back and I spoke to the lady. She told me the price: 1300 baht (about $45!!!). I went to share with Val, with the request that she not freak out before I told her the price, because we hadn't even negotiated yet. She smirked, contained herself, and I went back to lock in the room at 1200. A reasonable negotiation performance. Could have been better, could have been worse. But we knew it was still amazing.
So when we finished our coffee, wegot the key and went to the room, and to our surprise, the key did not work! We were confused. We had just negotiated, signed a contract and paid. She gave us the metal key. Why won't it work? Well, she was quoting the price for the regular room all along. And we were talking about the water side suite with jacuzzi. The real price was 2100. (still not bad). But sometimes you get lucky, and we got the room for our price for the night.
2 hours later
Correction: take the hot tub out of the awesome category. We turned it on and an entire ant farm came out of its pipes. Literally, the tub is now an ant cemetery. It's gross. I guess if it seems too good to be true...
Val would now like to talk about inequality. She has the same biological condition that my mother has: sweet skin and blood. All the buggies love her. I have about 5 mosquito bites. They're annoying, but bearable. Val has about 75. She looks like she has the chicken pox. The only thing that seems to frustrate her more than the bites, is the fact that I don't have them. (she denies this in words. But her eyes say otherwise).
Now, back to Exxon Mobil. We took an evening drive to a lookout spot on the west side we'd heard about. Like the rest, it was beautiful. We then found an amazing italian restaurant, il chiochio, run by a real Roman. He speaks in fast italian and makes homemade bread with gobs of garlic, and super thin pizza. ("real pizza doesnt take long to make", he says). It was awesome. And we now have a spot to tell lea, and share a local insight back her way. On the way back, though, we got a little lost. We asked some locals for directions, and they told us to go exactly the wrong way. So an hour later, we finally made it back, with one bar of gas in our little scooter. That will be our first stop tomorrow.
So that's it for tonight. Aiming to go kayaking in bottle beach tmrw. Write more then.
Ps. Sorry that these pics are not in order. We are posting from our phone and iPad and don't have the system down too well.
We wrote this post yesterday, April 21st. Just getting them online now.
For 150 baht a day ($6), we are the official owners (renters) of a scooter. Scared of it for day's, we were convinced of its necessity. now we are free to roam about the island, explore its various points, and maybe even move from haad rin.
The bike guy gave us 2 helmets and a tutorial. Now we just need to remember that they ride on the left side of the street here (already forgot that once).
Going out to explore. But after the first 5 minutes of riding, I don't think I ever want to leave.
(note: the above was written this morning. Out of deference to both sets of our worrying Jewish parents, we decided to hold off on posting until scooter day was done).
(cont)
There are no mobile stations in ko phangan (and we're all thankful for that, no offense meant, Lauren), but tonight, this fact almost did us in.
We spent the full day touring around the island. It's huge. It's not the size of a beach town, it's the size of a beach county. We went up the main highway road to try to get to bottle beach, with planned stops a la Lea's great tour guide recommendations. The main road is well paved so we thought it would be the best place to start our trek, and keep getting used to riding. The ride was amazing. Fresh, sea quality air, palm trees and the most amazing views you could ever imagine all around you. I was driving so Val got to soak it all in. We made stops for homemade ice cream made with fresh local ingredients, and at a Chinese church / lookout point (see pic). As you can see, there is sand and bugs flying everywhere when you ride, so we also made a pit stop to buy some authentic blue ray bans for 200 baht. ($7).
We finally made it to bottle beach, but after a few rain showers delayed us (not to worry, that's when we were ice-creaming it up), it was too late to kayak. So we kept going to our final stop: utopia resort. When we got here, we knew we weren't leaving.
Utopia is at the north west end of the island, about 25 km from our original hotel. It looks out over a private inlet and clicks to the east, and long views of the bay to the north and west. High up above a cliff, it's honestly breath taking. We sat for coffee and chatted with three Israelis fresh out of the army, and being us, started asking about the room rates. The guy said he wasn't the manager but could show us the rooms. The first one was incredible. Hard wood floors, Japanese decor, air con and fan and a private balcony overlooking the bay. that's the first floor. the basement has an outdoor shower, outdoor hot tub, and another balcony. We were sure it would be incredibly pricey for here. But maybe a normal price for us. We wanted to know. We walked back and I spoke to the lady. She told me the price: 1300 baht (about $45!!!). I went to share with Val, with the request that she not freak out before I told her the price, because we hadn't even negotiated yet. She smirked, contained herself, and I went back to lock in the room at 1200. A reasonable negotiation performance. Could have been better, could have been worse. But we knew it was still amazing.
So when we finished our coffee, wegot the key and went to the room, and to our surprise, the key did not work! We were confused. We had just negotiated, signed a contract and paid. She gave us the metal key. Why won't it work? Well, she was quoting the price for the regular room all along. And we were talking about the water side suite with jacuzzi. The real price was 2100. (still not bad). But sometimes you get lucky, and we got the room for our price for the night.
2 hours later
Correction: take the hot tub out of the awesome category. We turned it on and an entire ant farm came out of its pipes. Literally, the tub is now an ant cemetery. It's gross. I guess if it seems too good to be true...
Val would now like to talk about inequality. She has the same biological condition that my mother has: sweet skin and blood. All the buggies love her. I have about 5 mosquito bites. They're annoying, but bearable. Val has about 75. She looks like she has the chicken pox. The only thing that seems to frustrate her more than the bites, is the fact that I don't have them. (she denies this in words. But her eyes say otherwise).
Now, back to Exxon Mobil. We took an evening drive to a lookout spot on the west side we'd heard about. Like the rest, it was beautiful. We then found an amazing italian restaurant, il chiochio, run by a real Roman. He speaks in fast italian and makes homemade bread with gobs of garlic, and super thin pizza. ("real pizza doesnt take long to make", he says). It was awesome. And we now have a spot to tell lea, and share a local insight back her way. On the way back, though, we got a little lost. We asked some locals for directions, and they told us to go exactly the wrong way. So an hour later, we finally made it back, with one bar of gas in our little scooter. That will be our first stop tomorrow.
So that's it for tonight. Aiming to go kayaking in bottle beach tmrw. Write more then.
Ps. Sorry that these pics are not in order. We are posting from our phone and iPad and don't have the system down too well.
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